Haven't used DropBox, but it does look like a much better solution than raw S3 or many of the other services out there. But if you go to the "team" page on the website, I wouldn't give them much of a chance at surviving Apple's culture.
The downside of dropbox as a content gateway is they loose analytics. iTunes is really a mess now though, and needs to be rethought to make it lighter, more modular, and less "content-centric." The complete kludge that is iPad file synchronization needs to go away for long-term, widespread adoption.
And of course, Apple has no financial interest in fighting to help users rip their own DVDs when it can instead offer to sell or rent content, or push bundled Digital Copies as a feature unique to iTunes.
Blah blah blah...
In Switzerland we are still waiting for movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store. Until then, I have to rip my DVDs. And other services like HULU are for the U.S. only. No equivalent services here.
In fact, there's an online petition to bring movies to the swiss iTunes Store:
Just dropped by the job listings for the NC server farm and it appears the grunt jobs have all been filled. The listing for basic techs to run the servers is gone. It was there a few weeks ago.
They're still accepting applications [as of last night] for senior management for the techs - in case any of you wunderkind feel like moving to North Carolina.
Once again the greedy stupid recording companies have their heads stuck up their collective asses over licensing. In the days before iTunes they weren't able to control what CD players could play the CD you purchased. Your Mom or sister could listen to the same CD in their car or on a portable player without paying additional licensing fees. However, now they want to do exactly that, to force people to re-buy music they already own for each device. Now that they can't force us to buy an entire CD of music for one or two songs, they are gradually going to corner Apple into doing exactly what they want, and Apple will comply to maintain it's market position.
So, y'all [so far] managed to wander through this discussion without noting or mentioning the facility that Apple has completed building to facilitate cloud computing.
They've been hiring for weeks.
That facility is not for cloud computing, it is for a search engine service designed to give Google a hard time as punishment for Android.
Good points. Also, you have to wonder how companies like Netflix manage such (streaming) permissions, or for that matter, how radio and TV do!
Long negotiations and detailed licensing contracts.
I think something will happen, even if just lala.com rebranded as itunes streaming. It might be based only on what you've bought from itunes (dump the upload part) however due to contracts.
But I don't think we'll see anything real about it before Sept when the whole itunes/ipod event typically happens.
I still feel that MobileMe is morphing into the none device specific version of iOS. People talk about about the difficulty of syncing files with their iOS devices. This is simple if you have iDisk App, no syncing needed.
All of my files reside on my iDisk which syncs to my iMac and Macbook Pro they are also accessible on my iPhone via the iDisk App. All my files minus photos and itunes (libraries to large).
So how does iTunes fit in? MobileMe will allow unlimited storage for iTunes libraries. This means that all your iTunes files are backed up, and accessible anywhere you have an internet connection.
I don't think the labels really have an objection they are just trying to understand how this affects their sales. I think a lot of music sales have been replacements, and those sales are going away. They need to explain away these dollars to the share holders, or start suing as more.
I think MobileMe will eventually sold as iOS apps. For example Address Book will be free, but iDisk will cost $X per gig per year. iTunes with online storage will be free, but Mail will cost $X per address, or something like that.
I love my MobileMe account and look forward to the future of it.
Comments
The downside of dropbox as a content gateway is they loose analytics. iTunes is really a mess now though, and needs to be rethought to make it lighter, more modular, and less "content-centric." The complete kludge that is iPad file synchronization needs to go away for long-term, widespread adoption.
And of course, Apple has no financial interest in fighting to help users rip their own DVDs when it can instead offer to sell or rent content, or push bundled Digital Copies as a feature unique to iTunes.
Blah blah blah...
In Switzerland we are still waiting for movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store. Until then, I have to rip my DVDs. And other services like HULU are for the U.S. only. No equivalent services here.
In fact, there's an online petition to bring movies to the swiss iTunes Store:
http://www.bring-movies-to-itunes.ch/
They're still accepting applications [as of last night] for senior management for the techs - in case any of you wunderkind feel like moving to North Carolina.
So, y'all [so far] managed to wander through this discussion without noting or mentioning the facility that Apple has completed building to facilitate cloud computing.
They've been hiring for weeks.
That facility is not for cloud computing, it is for a search engine service designed to give Google a hard time as punishment for Android.
What's the saying - 'don't get mad, get even.'
;-)
Good points. Also, you have to wonder how companies like Netflix manage such (streaming) permissions, or for that matter, how radio and TV do!
Long negotiations and detailed licensing contracts.
I think something will happen, even if just lala.com rebranded as itunes streaming. It might be based only on what you've bought from itunes (dump the upload part) however due to contracts.
But I don't think we'll see anything real about it before Sept when the whole itunes/ipod event typically happens.
All of my files reside on my iDisk which syncs to my iMac and Macbook Pro they are also accessible on my iPhone via the iDisk App. All my files minus photos and itunes (libraries to large).
So how does iTunes fit in? MobileMe will allow unlimited storage for iTunes libraries. This means that all your iTunes files are backed up, and accessible anywhere you have an internet connection.
I don't think the labels really have an objection they are just trying to understand how this affects their sales. I think a lot of music sales have been replacements, and those sales are going away. They need to explain away these dollars to the share holders, or start suing as more.
I think MobileMe will eventually sold as iOS apps. For example Address Book will be free, but iDisk will cost $X per gig per year. iTunes with online storage will be free, but Mail will cost $X per address, or something like that.
I love my MobileMe account and look forward to the future of it.